I almost can’t take it anymore. I have the pleasure of meeting hundreds of people and seeing hundreds of shops, from small two-person operations all the way to the largest manufacturers in the country. While there are a few this won’t apply to, the vast majority (and I mean this in the nicest way possible) have no idea how to create flow in their operations.

Even if you’re doing millions per year, and things are getting to shipping every day, it might look like flow. But believe me, almost everyone is getting product to shipping the hard way.

And if this was just small shops, I’d understand. Most of us didn’t get into woodworking with a background in manufacturing principles. We started because we were good at making things. Demand grew, we hired help, moved into a shop, and then what? Where do we turn for answers?

This is where it starts to go sideways.

Advice from suppliers
As businesses grow, one of the first places we turn for advice is machine suppliers. We buy a CNC and ask, “Where should we put it?” I’ve watched this for 35 years. It is a rare breed of salesperson who truly understands flow. 

You will never hear someone say, “Run this machine slower to support flow.” But running everything flat out, as fast as possible, which is what most recommend, is one of the worst things you can do.

Now you’d think the big companies have this figured out — plant managers, engineers, experts — they must be better off, right? Wrong.

I’ve toured large facilities with incredible opportunities to create flow, and I watched them destroy it with machines that force batch production, can’t be connected, and make load balancing impossible. So who’s to blame?

The manufacturer builds the machine. The salesperson sells it. The plant manager agrees. And the owner assumes it must be right.
I really believe this is no different than a misdiagnosis in the medical field, which happens daily. It’s not because the doctors don’t care about their patients. They can’t know what they don’t know, and mistakes happen. 

Your machine manufacturer wants you to use the equipment, the sales person wants you to be successful so you buy more stuff, everyone in the process wants the same thing, but most don’t know what they don’t know. And you know what? The reality is very few care as much as you do. You are the one solely responsible for your operation. No one is coming to save you. Advice that sounds good to you, could actually be detrimental to your production.

So now what?

Here’s what I would do: For any major purchase, bring in a lean manufacturing expert to help with implementation. It should be someone from your industry who understands your operation. If you’re spending $100K on the machine, what’s another $5K to make sure it’s placed properly, run properly, and connected to other process properly?

That’s money well spent.

Concepts for results
Before I go, I want to leave you with some tried and true manufacturing principles that, applied to your operation, I guarantee will yield results, and usually way better than you’re expecting. 

1. Learn the concept of single piece flow. This is the most powerful principle out there. It’s so counterintuitive that most people don’t take the time to understand it properly.  Go on YouTube and search: “Single piece flow vs. batch.” There will be no less than a zillion videos. Keep watching until you believe it can work for you. It can. Even if your first thought is “were custom.” I know, it still works. Start here wdwrk.net/single-piece-flow.

2. Don’t try to make everything one at a time when you learn single-piece flow. I know, it’s confusing, right? That’s half the fun of this lean thing. 

Do not apply single-piece flow where it doesn’t fit, but be ruthless about applying it everywhere it can. Many processes can be broken out of a batch, processed in a single piece flow fashion and batched up again to move to the next process. 

Finishing is a good example of this. Other areas require a calculation of optimal batch size based on other system constraints. 

3. Learn how to connect processes. This is the gas pedal of manufacturing. I promise 99% of all your processes are disconnected, so there are loads of low hanging fruit. Don’t stress about how to connect everything. Look for easy connections and apply them. As you do, new ideas will emerge. 

4. Measure your factory performance with metrics that mean something to your shop floor staff. 

Two general practices are terrible for human motivation: a) say nothing, regardless of how well or poor the company is doing; and b) only talk about sales figures. Give your team the metrics they need to evoke real change in the direction that benefits the company. 

5. Work to create level flow through the factory. Establish a control point, then run that control point at the pace of the slowest operation in your plant. 

Watch productivity skyrocket and thank me later. 

6. Establish a Kanban system. This will simply blow your mind. (Read this column for a quick explanation of Kanban wdwrk.net/Kanban.)

7. Establish standard work procedures.

Questions to ask
If these concepts seem alien, that’s totally OK, it just might be a sign you could benefit from some help or coaching from a lean professional in your niche.

As for the machine guys, like every profession, there are good ones and bad ones. I use some simple sniff tests to see if I’m dealing with the right crowd. Just ask some questions like the ones below and if they hesitate, stumble or you hear them asking ChatGPT in the background, it doesn’t mean what they are selling is no good. It just means you might not want their advice on how to run it. Unless they invented it, then think twice… lol. 

• Define the 5S system and what the 5 S’s stand for.
• Who was the creator of TPS?”
• What’s your go to Lean book? (Then ask a question about that book if you know it.) 
  What car company is synonymous with lean manufacturing?
• What is Kanban?
• Define Pokeyoke.

Lean wannabes string together popular words like “our lean flow.” That’s a dead giveaway as well. If it sounds funny, it probably is. 

You could go next level on them and ask to jump on a video call and see lean in action in their workplace. If they know it, they should be doing it. 

As usual, I hope this helps and feel free to reach out with your comments or questions, we answer every email personally and love hearing from you. Let me know if we missed anything that has really helped you move the needle in your business.